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CONDITIONS ON WHICH THIS MESSAGE IS ACCEPTED.

It is received for transmission subject to all the Rules of the INTERNATIONAL TELEGRAPH CONVENTION>

The accuracy of the message is not guaranteed, and the Telegraph Department accepts no responsibility in regard to it.

ANY UNDERCHARGE MADE IN ERROR IS RECOVERABLE FROM THE SENDER.

REFUND of the whole cost will be given should the telegram suffer serious delay in transit or fail to reach its destination through the fault of the Telegraph Services, but the Sender accepts the consequences of insufficiency of address. Refund will also be given (if the message is a collated one) if, in consequence of mutilation it should be unable to fulfill its object. Claims to refund must be made by the Sender to the CHECK OFFICE, GOVERNMENT TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT CALCUTTA, within 6 months of the date of the message, and be supported in case of non-delivery by a certificate to that effect from the Terminal Station or Addressee, and in the case of mutilation by the copy actually delivered to the Addressee, and by a certificate from him that in consequence of mutilation the telegram was unable to fulfill its object.

Except in the case of message for Great Britain or for American, &c., through Great Britain, where a special Tariff is in force, the minimum charge is for a message of 20 words. This charge is increased one half for every 10 words, or fraction of 10 words, above 20.

For a message to the United Kingdom or America through it the minimum charge is for 10 words. Each additional word is charged separately. The station FROM as also the date and time tendered for transmission are Telegraphed free.

The Sender of a message can PREPAY A REPLY by adding the words "reply paid" (which are counted and charged for) and depositing the cost of the reply, which is limited to 3 times the cost of the original message. The Delivering Station pays the amount to the addressee in Monday, Stamps, or a Cheque on the Office leaving it to him to send the reply at any time, by any route and any address he pleases. The reply, if sent, is treated in every respect as a fresh message. If the original message cannot be delivered, or the addressee refuse the amount deposited, the Sender is informed of the fact by a telegram, which takes the place of the Reply.

Messages can be Collated. The Sender writes the word collationnée (which is charged for) as the first word of the message. The message is then repeated back from Station to Station to ensure correctness. The charge for collating is equal to half the charge for the message.

The Sender can prepay the charge for an Advice of Delivery of his message. If the message is delivered the exact time at which it reaches the Addressee is given. If the message cannot be delivered the cause of non-delivery is stated. The cost of this message is that for a message of a single rate.

The Sender can prescribe the ROUTE he wishes his telegram to follow: no charge is made for this.

ALL ENQUIRIES respecting this message should be made to the CHECK OFFICE, GOVERNMENT TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT, CALCUTTA within six months' of its date. No such enquiry can attended to without the production of this Receipt.

13

MESSAGE,--continued.

Dear Mr. Hecker,

My Christmas is being charmingly spend in this wonderful old buried city. Once larger than London - now containing less than one dozen white people - all government officials and less than two thousand natives - I am the only visitor in the Rest House and probably the only one in the place - freely I suppose it should be called. Everything seems beautiful. The weather is like a perfect American July day - thousands of birds and butterflies flitting about. Magnificent trees, shrubs and vines with superb foliage. Flower of greater beauty then I dreamed of - and a fragrance in the air finer than words can describe - Over all the sky bluer than that of Italy. and for miles around ruins of wonderful proportions and temples famous to all followers of Buddha. Early this morning I visited the Sacred Bo Tree. After my return to the Rest House a large number of the natives from children two years old to many nearly one hundred, all in various stages of nakedness, many very beautiful and intelligent came bringing me flowers and danced and sang and played upon their weird musical instruments - for they knew it was my Christmas day and they delighted to honour it - And I must say that pleasanter more polite - an apparently more genuine Christmas Expressions I have never heard uttered - and in perfect English too -But it needed no demonstrations of any sort to remind me of those at home, the few and meager words of my cablegram - It will probably reach you late but I trust it will be in your hands before the sun has set upon your fifteenth year [[strikethrough]] old [[/strikethrough]] of Christmas kindness in Detroit - My full team guide are at the door and now I must be off to the jungle where I am to see some of the nature who live therein.

Faithfully 

SENDER'S SIGNATURE AND ADDRESS. (NOT SIGNALLED.) | CLF

Anuradhapura (about [[strikethrough]] 180 [[/strikethrough]] 180 miles from Colombo)
December 20th, 1894 

TELEGRAPH MASTER.

Stationary is mighty scarce in this country and I carry next to no luggage with me - The suit of clothes I have on were made by a native and cost me a little over two (2) dollars our money.